Alina joined our family to help me with my 3 boys who are all under 4.

The best thing about Alina is that she is a carer through and through - kindness and consideration for others seems to be part of her DNA, and shines through all the time. She is patient, encouraging and very warm towards my boys, and has noticed my boys' different likes, dislikes and habits, as they are quite different personalities. At a time of change in our family with a new baby arriving, my oldest boy has felt rather displaced - Alina has been extremely patient and understanding with him, and gets just the right balance between kindness and compassion, and firm but calm discipline when it is needed.

Alina has read the mood of our family exactly right in a short space of time - she got to grips with our routine super-fast, and has blended exactly into our family's culture - e.g. discpline, rules, tone. It's like having a clone of myself who does everything the way I would, and I really value that consistency.

She's really good at taking initiative, noticing what might help me and my husband and offering to do it, rather than wait to be instructed. Examples such as tidying, folding laundry, loading the dishwasher, preparing food etc.

She has been very accommodating indeed in terms of hours (our family needed unsociable early starts) and is impeccably reliable. Alina is great at communicating about dates and practical arrangements, and has proactively done so.

All in all, finding Alina has been a huge benefit to our family. She has moved us away from a place of being frazzled and overwhelmed to a situation which feels happy and sustainable in the long term.

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